Mason's Digressions

Hey Mr DJ play that song

2008-05-25T06:32:29Z

Spent a fun afternoon today down at the unbeatable KFJC radio station, playing cassettes and singles (and a few CDs and CDRs) from my collection of Japanese underground music. Thanks to Dan for allowing me to take over for a few hours, attempting to play almost entirely bands that nobody has ever heard of. But I did have to start with "Amerika" by YBO2 from the Alienation album, as that one holds a special place for me as an early wake-up call that there was some seriously amazing music to be found in Japan, a couple of years before I made it over there. (I'll remind folks here that I am working to keep my Japanese music blog active, now at http://ongakublog.wordpress.com)

And after the radio show we went and got some fantastic Indian food. Now that I think about it I'm not sure why we didn't go get Japanese food for dinner, but since it was delicious we must have made the right choice.

An inversion of time

2008-05-21T06:18:38Z

No, I don't know what the title means. But I hate trying to put subject lines/titles on entries here. There is no subject, it's just another post, that's all.

In any case, as morbidloren wrote yesterday, we had our 22nd anniversary dinner on Sunday, which was, of course, wonderful. A nice meal and better company, as always. It's been an interesting year so far, with a lot of activity for both of us. A new job for me, a new agent for her, some new releases for me and hopefully a couple of books for her! If only Lenore had gotten into the school of our dreams for this fall, we might not have anything to complain about (though we'd find something, I'm sure).

In music news, the Sloow Tapes label from Belgium will be releasing a cassette with a couple of live Numinous Eye shows, sometime later this year; and a label in China is interested in releasing a CD plus perhaps a re-issue of an old collaboration of mine. I have to say, if that might lead to doing a tour of some sort in China, I'd be thrilled. I'm finally finishing up the edits on a cool recording from over a year ago when Dubmarronics were in town, and I'll be finding a home for it.

Live-wise, Suishou no Fune come into SF on Monday for a couple of shows. Monday night at Bottom of the Hill they'll play with Oxbow and Mi Ami; then Tuesday night at 21 Grand in Oakland with Oaxacan and an improv trio. Then on June 18 I'll be playing at the Hemlock Tavern with Makoto Kawabata from Acid Mothers Temple and a coupla other bands. I'm doing a Numinous Eye set with Frank Grau on drums, and Kawabata will join us for a portion of the set.

The Japan tour planning is looking amazing (see http://www.charnel.com/numinouseye for the dates), including shows with KK Null, Tatsuya Yoshida, Up-Tight, Yamamoto Seiichi, Suishou no Fune, Miminokoto, Oshiri Penpenz, and lots more. The only hitch right now is that plane tickets are about twice their usual price, apparently because Tokyo is in-between SF and China, and I failed to check my schedule against the damn Olympics. Anyone out there a travel agent with tricks up your sleeve? Didn't think so. We'll see what happens. Mike Shoun, my frequent drummer with Numinous Eye, is hoping to go but at that price I don't know if either of us can afford it! Fingers crossed...

Confluence

2008-04-22T06:02:46Z

It's been a funny, busy time recently. Lots of old acquaintances reappearing all at once, for no discernable reason, writers and musicians from 20 years ago. Odd.

Meanwhile, we played quite a fun show the other night opening for Acid Mothers Temple (and Mammatus), who were as always stellar, down to Kawabata breaking his guitar into pieces at the end of the night -- and then signing the neck for a fan as a souvenir. Mike and I played a good half-hour opening set, especially considering he's been on tour with the Oh Sees constantly and we only had a chance to jam once before this show. Never really a problem, though. The recording came out pretty well, so I'll likely post it on the web site sometime soon like usual.

I'm trying to get more mixing and editing done, while also finding a home for a couple of already-completed albums. Right now I finished mixing a jam session from last year with Dubmarronics when they were in town: the three of them on guitar, toys, and heavily-effected drums; me on guitar; Stoo on bass; and Gabriel on vocal treatments. Abstract, flowing, fun stuff.

Definitely finding it hard to make time for the recording and editing, though. But I am also in the midst of organizing another tour to Japan this August -- it's coming together very quickly. It'll be a special one for many reasons, including several shows with Yamamoto Seiichi (including one with Tatsuya Yoshida) as well as Suishou no Fune.

Leaped past leap day

2008-03-01T19:53:08Z

Quite a lot has happened since my last post actually, but it's all been a bit distracting so I've been lax at posting. As usual, I guess. In any case, it's hard to beat the excitement of the LP release, of course. Many new Numinous Eye works are in progress, including a new CDR, "It's Coming Down," which will be available fairly soon now. Drummer Mike is hard at work hand-printing the sleeves with a gorgeous linoblock print; the CDRs are burned; so it's pretty much done. Stay tuned. There are a couple of other albums done and looking for homes, and hopefully it won't be too long before I can announce some concrete plans.

We only have one show planned right now, in April opening for good old Acid Mothers Temple here in SF at Bottom of the Hill. Always a good time.

Another tour in Japan will happen sometime this year, either around June or in the fall. Plans will begin to solidify soon. We hope to not only play shows but also do some recording in Tokyo this time around, bringing in various friends to add to the Numinous Eye sound, which will be great fun.

I've been laid out with one flu/cold after another the last couple of weeks. I've coughed my lungs up all around the house. It's great, really.

The other great news, though, is that I have a new job, in San Francisco again. No more commuting, either helping kill the earth by car exhaust or spending hours waiting for multiple segments by mass transit. Hooray. It'll be pretty busy, but also a huge improvement over what my previous company turned into.

Numinous Eye LP arrival!

2008-01-20T06:32:15Z

I'm happy to announce that the new Numinous Eye release, the unimaginatively-titled "Studio/Live" from the Little Mafia label, has arrived! I know that some of the distributors have it already, but I finally received a nice heavy box that had the UPS guy wondering why this relatively small box was so heavy. When Loren informed him that it was albums, he asked "Like old records?" Yes, indeedy.

Side A was recorded back at the end of 2005 in Tokyo. I played a show with drummer Koji Shimura (Acid Mothers Temple, Mainliner, Miminokoto, etc) at a little bar called Chikyuya. When we finished, the bar owner introduced me to bassist Higo Hiroshi, who played in the legendary band Friction, and asked if we could play together. I said sure, that would be great sometime. She looked confused for a moment, and then clarified, "How about now?" So Hiroshi borrowed a bass from the opening band, and with Shimura we played a ~20 minute encore jam that is now side A of this LP. Side B's story is simpler, it's studio recordings from 2005 with ex-SubArachnoid Space drummer Chris Van Huffle.

See the newly-spiffied site at http://www.charnel.com/numinouseye and view the beautiful cover below. It was originally going to be screen-printed but I guess the guy who was going to do it flaked. Instead, we used the same artwork on non-glossy stock and it looks neatly old-fashioned. Just like a record album. Oh, and these are limited to 490 copies, on orange vinyl. Pretty pretty.

Looking forward to change and progress

2007-12-23T06:55:55Z

It appears that 2008 will be a year of change, which should be a good thing. 2007 passed by in a blur, while simultaneously taking its time about things. Full of paradoxes, much happened while little changed. I feel fairly good about productivity, but the results of that productivity have yet to really make it out into the world. 2008 should be the year when that happens, I hope. Entering the year, one Numinous Eye LP is due to be released any day now; another is in progress for the first part of the year, and a new CDR is more or less done. A retrospective CD of old compilation tracks from my early project Trance is in the works with a label in Russia. And at least three other Numinous Eye CDs are nearly done and ready to find homes. Some of them have been nearly done for six months now, though, so... 2008 is the year to just get things done and make things happen. Another tour of Japan is being planned for April-May. A possible visit to the east coast might follow. But other things need to happen, too. Some writing should be completed. Some more travelling should be done. Loren's books should find publishers. Lenore should find a school for the fall. And so much more...

May all the rest of you see interesting change for the better in the coming year as well.

KFJC guest DJ mp3 available!

2007-11-26T06:53:20Z

For those very few of you into old-tyme experimental sounds, I have posted an mp3 of my recent guest DJ visit down to KFJC: http://www.charnel.com/mason/kfjc_20071110.html

There you'll find the playlist and a link to play or download the mp3. It's kind of a huge file so I won't keep it up there forever, but I'll let it hang out for a little while.

Enjoy!

Not playing Tuesday after all

2007-11-19T04:35:18Z

If I write too long on this I'll end up ranting in an unseemly fashion, so I'll keep this brief. Numinous Eye will unfortunately not be playing this Tuesday as planned, alas. Up-Tight were denied entry into the U.S. at the start of their short tour over here, and were shipped back to Japan on the next flight out. I got a phone call the other morning from an officer at the immigration and border department at the Detroit airport, who clearly had the band's itinerary in hand. He asked about the shows, primarily looking to find out if the band would be paid or not. Apparently the idea of a trio of Japanese psych-rockers spending thousands of dollars to fly to the U.S. in order to make a couple of hundred bucks entertaining a few people at a handful of shows is offensive to the immigration department, so back they went. Don't even get me started.

So the show here on Tuesday is cancelled. I especially feel bad for the valiant Kohoutek, who were going to meet Up-Tight in Chicago and do all the shows with them back east to NYC and DC. Sucks.

Guest DJ results

2007-11-13T04:21:23Z

For those interested, here's what I played during my 3-hour guest DJ slot on KFJC on the 10th, during my 80s experimental cassette-culture flashback:

ARTIST	TITLE	ALBUM
Test Dept.	Gdansk	Rising From the Red Sands Vol 2
Nocturnal Emissions	Smear Campaign	Rising From the Red Sands Vol 2
Esplendor Geometrico	El Acero del Partido	Necronomicon
Muslimgauze	Hammer and Sickel	Necronomicon
Women of the SS	Sex Experiment 2	Women of the SS
Maybe Mental	Premystery	Dry Lungs
Le Syndicat	Full of Shit	Dry Lungs
Possession	Performance Parts 1-3	Life at the Top
Bourbonese Qualk	Moving Forward	Necronomicon
Viscera	Blank Faces of the Others	A Whole Universe of Horror Movies
Human Head Transplant	Funeral for a King	Insomnia Vol 2
Katharsis	Just Passing Through	Ecstasy Under Current II
Jonathan Briley	Nightmare for Hanas	Slaughter ov the Innocent
Illusion of Safety	New Game	Ecstasy Under Current II
Yref	Wuste Mark VI	Ecstasy Under Current II
Master/Slave Relationship	The Long Whip of Persuasion	Melt
Un-Film	Neuropathic Halo	3-D Effect
Un-Film	3-D Effect	3-D Effect
Self Terror	Untitled	Unseen Suns and Moribund Koran
SPK	Ich Klage An (Euthanasia)	The Last Supper
Smersh	X,X,X, Going on I	The Last Supper
Vivenza	Bandes Magnetiques	Bruitiste
Allegory Chapel Ltd	A Glorious Ascension	Satanic Verses
Eleve Modele	Dirty Breaks	Ciguri
Controlled Bleeding	Fat Bedside	Dossier
Controlled Bleeding	Save Us	Dry Lungs IV
Monochrome Bleu	Killed!	Stay or Go
Asmus Tietchens	Freiband 8	Must Be Musique
Portion Control	He Is Patriotic	Assault
Odium	Accept My Tools	How to Philosophize with a Hammer
Pacific 231	Classical Schoks	Ciguri
Blackhouse	Hope Like a Candle	Hope Like a Candle
Chop Shop	Mesmeric Revelation	Untitled
The Thunder Orchestra	Pegasus Theme	TO/VO split
Caul	Untitled	The Golden Section
Null	Nihilo Azoth	Overload Extasya

If I find someplace from which to download a recording of the set, I'll post it here, of course.

Guest DJing on KFJC tomorrow

2007-11-10T07:54:38Z

Just a quick note for any fans of old-school experimental music -- I'll be playing guest DJ on KFJC-FM tomorrow afternoon at 3:00pm. Tune in online at http://www.kfjc.org if you're not in the area. I'm trying not to play anything newer than 1991 or so, and I've dug out a big pile of old cassettes, so there should be plenty of fun including SPK, Blackhouse, Club Moral, Hunting Lodge, Viscera, Dog as Master, Vivenza, Die Form, Organum, Esplendor Geometrico, and the like. Lots of rare old stuff getting dusted off, so set the recorder and enjoy a few hours of flashback to the 80s cassette culture.

NaAlMiMo doesn't have the same ring to it

2007-10-31T06:17:11Z

So, since morbidloren is going to spend November doing NaNoWriMo I need to keep busy too. I thought about writing another novel, but I feel bad about the two I have that need to be edited and finished up. So I considered subverting the purpose of NaNoWriMo and finishing one of those. But really that's not what I need to finish up right now. So I'm going to call November NaAlMiMo even though it's not nearly as clever and pronounceable: National Album Mixing Month. Yes, I'm going to finish mixing all of the albums that I have in progress. That includes two Numinous Eye albums; one collaboration with Dubmarronics and friends; and one collaboration between Numinous Eye and Suishou no Fune. If I finish those, then I have at least one other collaboration that needs artwork and packaging to do as a CDR release, and perhaps one other solo guitar album. So we'll see if I can accomplish that and maybe even get another Numinous Eye release underway in the recording stages.

We also have a show coming up: Mammatus, Up-Tight, Numinous Eye at the Cafe du Nord in San Francisco on Nov 20! Yes, Japan's amazing Up-Tight are coming back over, and this will be their only west coast show. Deep, dark Velvets-esque psych-drone punctuated by phenomenal outbursts of incredible fuzz guitar. Not to be missed. Mammatus are likewise imposing: Santa Cruz's masters of prog-heavy-rock-psych-something, great stuff.

And lastly, on Nov 10 sometime around 3pm I will be playing guest DJ on KFJC radio. If you're at all into old experimental/noise/stuff, check it out and maybe think about recording it. Several hours' worth of old cassettes from the 80s will be played, including (I think) SPK, Test Dept, Vivenza, Master/Slave Relationship, Smersh, Odium, Ramleh, Club Moral, and much more. Many great rarities that need to be dusted off and played again.

Legendary rock'n'roll neighborhoods

2007-10-17T05:40:24Z

I'm reading Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Legendary Neighborhood, by Michael Walker. Very enjoyable, at least for those of us who like to read about music scenes and characters from the past. In this case, it's about the late 60s-early 70s LA neighborhood, which was home to pretty much every hitmaker of the time, from the Byrds to Crosby, Stills & Nash, Joni Mitchell, Mama Cass, Frank Zappa, and far more. Filled with fun stories.

It inevitably makes me think of other scenes, more recent ones, that I know of, or may have encountered, or have known people from. And of course, it brings to mind the time during which we've been in San Francisco and the mini-scenes (none, alas, anywhere near as profitable as the Laurel Canyon scene in the book) which have come and gone. When we first moved here there was a very healthy experimental thing going on at 455 10th Street, later via Auricular Records, 7Hz, and so on. The noise scene probably peaked early on with the Kingdom of Noise festival featuring Masonna and Solmania (with Borbetomagus and Steelpole Bathtub at the Great American Music Hall!), but for a while there we had constant visitors like Keiji Haino, Hijokaidan, and C.C.C.C. Then there was the tribal undercurrent that came with the frequent time spent here by Crash Worship, at various weird small clubs here and there like our friend Chad's warehouse off 2nd Street. There were swirls of activity around Neurosis, Amber Asylum and friends. It felt like there was something special going on for a while after I started SubArachnoid Space, with shows every month at Bottom of the Hill (home away from home), Komotion, Kilowatt, Cocodrie, and other spots, mostly gone now. I guess the dot-com boom really did kill a lot of it, but I'm sure there was no one thing. A lot of bands did leave town, though, or just stopped playing. There's a lot more going on again now, so perhaps there's another scene gestating. We'll see.

Circle

2007-09-27T05:22:03Z

Today was one of those days I'm happy to be here in San Francisco. I left work a bit early to get up to Aquarius Records, because Andee (one of the owners) had taken it upon himself to get Circle down to SF from Portland early so that they could play an in-store this evening. So at 6:00 the store was crammed full of people excited to see a chilled-out version of Circle's live show. And it certainly was worth it. The boys from Finland played a wonderful, fun set, concluding with a truly bizarre barbershop quartet ditty. And this after a mock battle and a beheading from Jussi's bass. Later tonight (actually the show probably just started as I type) they're playing another secret show on The Bus. And tomorrow night at Bottom of the Hill.

I talked to Jussi afterwards -- we hadn't seen each other in perhaps a couple of years! -- and he said they're pretty tired but he enjoyed the casual store show. Their tour's 20 shows in 20 days, and he's looking forward to getting back home and just chilling out, fishing, and reading for a week. Sounded good to me too. I wish.

So, I feel lucky to be here where such a cool band can have such a cool store put in the work to let them play for a small, enthusiastic audience of freaks. Bravo.

So much time, so little to do...no, strike that, reverse it.

2007-09-25T03:33:02Z

So, Suishou no Fune are on the east coast now with Mike, starting the remainder of their tour. Spent one day recording with Bardo Pond at MG's place, which apparently (and not surprisingly) was great. Tomorrow up to Boston, and then they head back down the coast before striking a westerly course. If you're between Boston and LA, check out http://www.myspace.com/suishounofune for dates and sounds, and don't miss them if they visit your town. They're incredibly nice people.

I had a chance to do a quick semi-rough mix of the recording session with Suishou no Fune while they were here, so I could send a copy east with Mike to give them. It's great stuff! I don't sound at all like I felt, which is to say perhaps a listener can't tell that I just wanted to lie down and pass out. So I need to edit and do some good mixes, and find a label for it. Like so many other things.

I'm waiting to get some blank digipacks in, and then I think I'll see about doing another couple of Charnel Music CDRs, including one with recordings from Numinous Eye's Japan tour and one with some collaborations I did when I was there in '05. Finally get that out there. It's interesting to do a limited edition CDR, and then make the album available online. So you can get The Farthest Thing on iTunes, Rhapsody (listen to it at http://www.rhapsody.com/numinouseye/thefarthestthing), and wherever else IODA gets it to. I'm pretty curious to see how far the online stuff can go, since it of course there are no pressing costs. I personally still like to have some physical manifestation to go with the music, but I don't begrudge anyone who just wants the audio files.

And thus...more mixing to do, soonish.

Surviving the weekend

2007-09-19T20:56:25Z

Amazingly, I survived last weekend, though I'm still recovering. Friday morning I picked up Yamamoto Seiichi at the airport, and dropped him at my friend Gabriel's house so he could rest up. Yamamoto was long-time guitarist for the Boredoms (and in theory still is, though as the Vuoredoms now he doesn't play with them), and is leader of Omoide Hatoba, Rovo, Rashinban, Para, and others. He also manages Osaka's legendary venue Bears, and is essentially godfather to the Kansai indie music scene.

Saturday morning, unfortunately, I woke up with a cold. Figures. Luckily I wasn't playing that night, just the organizer for the show. I headed again to SFO and picked up Suishou no Fune, coming from Tokyo. Stopped to get Mike (drummer with me in Numinous Eye, and Suishou no Fune's drummer for their tour over here) and then Yamamoto, and we went to Bottom of the Hill. After a long wait outside -- the guy opening the doors was rather late -- we got load-in and sound-check going. Wooden Shjips were opening and kindly letting Suishou no Fune use their gear.

The show went great, with a good turnout. Not phenomenal, but it was a pretty competitive weekend so everyone was happy. I staggered home and slept, but still woke up on Sunday feeling like roadkill. Time to drive to Davis with Suishou no Fune. Mike and I, with Pirako and Kageo, loaded up my car and hit the road. Our first stop (well, after coffee) was KDVS for a radio show in the afternoon. The guys at the station had collected up some amps and drums, and we managed a decent collaborative performance despite some technical issues.

We hit downtown Davis for a quick dinner at Subway (living large!), and went over to Delta of Venus, the venue for the night's show. It's a very nice cafe on the edge of downtown Davis, with a surprisingly good-sounding room. I also found a chocolate cafe down the street which had a pretty impressive truffle cake that I shouldn't have eaten. But I did.

After locals San Francisco Water Cooler opened with a very cool set, Mike and I played a 30-minute Numinous Eye set which went really well. Wooden Shjips had some nice drums and a great Ampeg guitar amp fairly similar to mine, and everything sounded great. I almost fell over during the second half, but I persevered and made it through. Then I just went and sat down for the next couple of hours while Wooden Shjips played a fantastic set and Suishou no Fune capped off the evening perfectly.

We crashed that night at the organizer's girlfriend's house, and naturally I was exhausted and completely unable to sleep. I guess my body decided that if I wasn't going to treat it right, then the hell with me. Or something. In any case, we woke up in the morning, grabbed a quick breakfast back at Delta of Venus, and drove back to SF for an afternoon of recording in our practice space. That went quite well, and we got over an hour of jams recorded. Hopefully it won't take me forever to get around to proper mixing (I'm sadly overdue doing final mixes of the jams recorded when Dubmarronics were here).

Catching up on sleep the past couple of nights has helped a lot, though my voice still sounds funny. But the weekend was worth it.

A live shows meme

2007-09-14T05:15:27Z

Adopted from korperschwache:

Here is how it works: Copy this list, leave in the bands you've seen perform live, delete the ones you haven't, and add new ones that you have seen until you reach 25. An asterisk means the previous person had it on their list. Two asterisks means the last two people who did this before you had that band on their list.

1. Pain Teens
2. Fushitsusha
3. Diamanda Galas**
4. Comets on Fire
5. K. K. Null*
6. Tatsuya Yoshida*
7. Suishou no Fune*
8. The Psychic Paramount*
9. Laibach
10. Totimoshi*
11. Swans
12. Neurosis
13. King Crimson
14. Merzbow
15. Sonic Youth
16. Low*
17. Melt-Banana
18. Acid Mothers Temple*
19. Royal Trux
20. Cop Shoot Cop
21. Unsane*
22. Wiseblood
23. Skinny Puppy**
24. Shonen Knife*
25. Hunting Lodge

9/15: Yamamoto Seiichi, Suishou no Fune, Wooden Shjips

2007-09-10T02:06:30Z

For those in the San Francisco area, attention please! I'm extremely excited to be presenting a very special show this coming Saturday night, at Bottom of the Hill. Legendary guitarist Yamamoto Seiichi is coming from Kyoto to play one and only one solo performance in the U.S., and we're the lucky winners. The leader of Rovo, Omoide Hatoba, Rashinban, and many other bands, not to mention of course ex-guitarist for the Boredoms, Yamamoto is indeed a living legend in the Kansai area of Japan as godfather to the indie scene. He'll be playing a special solo guitar "noise machine" performance, he says. Tokyo's Suishou no Fune come back for their second appearance here, this time with local drummer Mike Shoun joining the core duo of guitarists Pirako and Kageo. Their deep, dark psych-drone is an intense thing live. And SF's own Wooden Shjips bring their own brand of psych-rock as well, making this a well-rounded, excited evening. Don't miss it!

It all goes down Saturday, Sept 15, 2007 at Bottom of the Hill. Doors around 8:30. Check out the Bottom of the Hill website for more info.

Numinous Eye live 9/10 in SF, 9/16 in Davis

2007-09-10T01:58:03Z

Just a quick note to mention that I'm playing with Mike Shoun tomorrow night as Numinous Eye, opening for Acid Mothers Guru Guru at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco. AMGG is Kawabata & Tsuyama of Acid Mothers Temple, with drummer Mani Neumeier of the legendary Guru Guru. Should be exciting! Louisville's The Phantom Family Halo are in the middle slot, so we'll be going on early.

Mike and I did some recording last week in the practice space, which ended up going really well. One of those nights when stuff just worked. The result was a nice 7-track recording (yeah, just didn't need 8) of three pieces totaling 45 minutes. Hopefully we'll get it released soonish too. The "Studio/Live" Numinous Eye LP should be here shortly, I think, which will be excellent. And I'm nearly finished mixing the "Ipsa Scientia Potesta Est" album, which has been taking a while. It's a bit more complex than just straight-forward jams.

For anyone in the Davis area, we'll also be playing on 9/16 at Delta of Venus, opening for Wooden Shjips and Suishou no Fune -- in other words, an awesome show! Mike is doing double duty, playing drums with both NE and Suishou no Fune. He'll actually be flying to the east coast a week later to hook up with them and be their drummer for the next three weeks as they tour across the country. I'm jealous; I haven't been in a smelly dirty tour van for quite some time.

Numinous Eye and another band too

2007-08-22T06:32:52Z

Time I suppose to begin reminding people in our area that Numinous Eye will be playing a show on Sept 10. We're opening for Acid Temple Guru, or something like that -- it's two of our pals from Acid Mothers Temple playing with Mani Neumeier from Guru Guru. Bottom of the Hill, with Phantom Family Halo playing in the middle, who are also pretty cool.

And in the meantime, I'm in another band. Sort of. My friend Frank, formerly of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Species Being, has put together Kerauno. It's an interesting project, for which he's hooking up with various other players to be the "A" Team and play when we can. But recognizing that we're all kinda busy, it's an open thing where, if one or more of us can't do a show/tour/whatever, we all agree that it's cool to drag someone else in to take our place whenever necessary. I like the free-form spirit. Plus it's a pretty different thing for me, very rhythmically tight and more structured than my usual deal. Gets me out of my box a bit, which is very nice. For now we're just working on recording an EP. Shows will follow.

And in other, more work-related news, let me stress that firing people really, really sucks.

Developments developing

2007-08-11T06:16:29Z

Hmm, things have been happening and yet nothing significant enough that I got around to posting here again for a little while. Got the test pressings for the Numinous Eye LP, which is super cool. I need to give it one more close listen this weekend, and give Little Mafia Records the go-ahead (assuming I don't notice anything weird, which I didn't on the first listen). Can't wait to have some vinyl, though we won't quite have it in time for the show on Sept 10.

And yes, we're playing on Sept 10 here in SF, opening for Acid Mother's Guru Guru (yes, members of Acid Mothers Temple with Mani Neumeier from Guru Guru!) at Bottom of the Hill. Only one other show planned for a while, because Mike's going to be on tour drumming for Suishou no Fune during late Sept/early Oct. Assuming I finish booking the tour. Anyone in western Massachusetts reading and want to help with a show? How about Norman, OK? Heh. But yes, we'll be playing with Suishou no Fune and Wooden Shjips in Davis on Sept 16 at Delta of Venus.

Mike will also playing with Suishou no Fune here on Sept 15, with Wooden Shjips and -- get ready -- Yamamoto Seiichi playing his first and only solo show in the U.S. The ex-Boredoms guitarist (and leader of Omoide Hatoba, Rovo, Rashinban, and more) will be headlining that show. I saw him do a solo set at 20000V in Tokyo a couple of years ago, which was one of the best performances I've ever witnessed. I've been trying to get him over here ever since, and finally it's working out. Very exciting -- spread the word.

At some point in the next few months a new Numinous Eye CD-R will be available from Public Eyesore, and I'll also be finding a home for an album collecting edited pieces from our Japan tour in March. And a label may be interested in releasing our set playing with Damo Suzuki and Steve Eto from that tour as well. Stay tuned.

Are you now or have you ever been?

2007-07-15T05:58:05Z

Had an entertaining and interesting experience earlier this week, though I'm just getting the chance to write about it now. A former co-worker (co-founder of a startup I worked at back in 2000) is apparently going to work for an aerospace company, and had to have a background check done for a security clearance -- better him than me, that's for sure. In any case, he asked if I'd be a reference.

So, one morning this week I spent 15-20 minutes on the phone with an investigator, answering various questions, like... Did I ever witness my former co-worker drinking to excess? Did I ever see him lose his temper? As far as I know, has he ever gambled? Did I know if he had any financial difficulties? Did he appear to live frugally, or to excess? Did I know if he had contact with anyone who's a citizen of another country? (um, only his co-founder at the aforementioned startup) My favorite was whether I knew of anything embarassing in his past which might be used against him to force him to act against the interests of the United States. And of course, the final question of whether overall I believed that he would work for the interests of America.

It would have been much more interesting if I knew any real dirt about my former co-worker, of course, but alas he's pretty clean. As it was, the questions were pretty intriguing. It wasn't quite the 1984 Big Brother interrogation that it could have been, but still... Thankfully I already know there ain't a chance in hell that I'll ever be applying for a security clearance; nor would I be likely to get one I suppose, even if I wanted it. Years ago my parents apologized that their political activities of long ago might make it impossible for me to work for the government, but who knows. I'll never find out. This was probably as close as I'll get.

Network Neutrality

2007-07-15T05:44:24Z

A topic which hasn't been getting as much attention as it was (usual media ADD) but still of immense importance, for everyone who appreciates how much the internet has changed the way so many of us do...nearly everything. Network Neutrality's a fairly boring subject unless you're a geek like me, but ultimately it has to do with how innovation occurs on the internet, and how currently anyone can compete equally, regardless of whether you're one person with a net connection or a large corporation.

MoveOn is collecting entries for a petition being sent to the FCC. Take a few moments and add your name. Their message:

Hi, The Federal Communications Commission will soon decide whether to protect Network Neutrality, the Internet's First Amendment and the key to Internet freedom. Net Neutrality prevents Internet providers like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast from choosing which websites open properly on your computer you based on which website pays them the most. The ability of the little guy to communicate online is at stake.

The FCC's deadline for public comments is July 16, 2007. Let's show the FCC we care. If you sign, MoveOn.org Civic Action will submit your comments into the FCC's public record.

Here's the link:

http://civ.moveon.org/save_the_internet/FCCpetition.html

Spiders not from Mars

2007-06-12T03:31:02Z

Numinous Eye played a show last night, down at the Hotel Utah, a tiny friendly bar south of Market. Despite a sound guy who was...eccentric...and not so helpful -- which didn't much effect us -- it was a fun time. Mike and I played first, and for this show I was calling it Numinous (Shut) Eye because we played a psych-drone set instead of a psych-rock set. Mike didn't play drums, and instead did a synth thing while I did my guitar dronadelic stuff. We're working on an album in that style, which I enjoy but I'm definitely more into drums and rocking out these days overall.

I sat on the floor to play, and at one point something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I thought I imagined it, then I saw a spider -- not huge, but big enough to see on a semi-dark stage -- climbing down my shoe. I waited for it to land on the stage, then lifted up one of my effect pedals and blew it gently a foot or so over, and watched it scuttle away. Silly thing. Couldn't tell if it was liking the sounds or not.

After we finished, Seekers Who Are Lovers played. From Mexico, Seekers is the pop-experimental-avant-electronic project of a super nice guy named Angel; for this show his friend Carlos Icaza, a drummer, came along. Carlos played the bar's piano as well, occasionally at the same time as drums. Despite technical difficulties, it was a very cool set, at times reminding me of Mum or M83, dense electronic textures with poppy vocals.

Last, old friend Thomas Dimuzio played, as it was his birthday. He kept it pretty short, but as always he put everyone into a trance with multi-layered, superbly controlled sounds from another dimension. Droning, rumbling, phasing, burbling, chattering stuff that might be called atmospheric if you live on Jupiter.

In short, all good fun, marred only by the sound guy pulling a cable and knocking Mike's Prophet-600 synth down two steps onto the floor. Haven't heard yet whether it survived thanks to its old-school metal-and-wood construction. Fingers crossed...

Small world syndrome

2007-05-14T06:06:57Z

I actually got out of the house last night, and went down to Bottom of the Hill to see Acid Mother's Temple play. Sort of couldn't miss them, of course. It was a great show, but it was also a funny example of small world syndrome.

I was hanging out in front of the club before the show started, having chatted with Hiroshi, when a young guy came up, thinking we'd met before; indeed, he turned out to be an Amoeba fellow, friend of numerous friends, and bummed out because he'd bought a ticket not realizing that it was a 21+ show. Being 20, he was out of luck. I tried on his behalf, but not even being on the band's list would help. But let's just say that things worked out such that he was able to watch AMT's set thanks to various people being very cool.

Later, just before AMT went on, I was walking to the bar, working my way through the far-too-crowded crowd, when I suddenly found myself face-to-face with a friend who lives nowhere near San Francisco: Rika, bassist for Melt-Banana! And there were Agata and Yasuko as well. I had no idea they were in town, but it turned out they came over early to get some equipment for the tour they're starting later this month (and check this: in addition to their usual spots, they're opening for Tool on tour! Super cool for them, but further proof that it's a weird world).

While I'm typing, it's also worth mentioning that this fall is going to be fun thanks to tours over here planned by: Acid Guru Temple (Kawabata & Tsuyama with Mani Neumeier of Guru Guru), Suishou no Fune, and Up-Tight. Be prepared.

Snip snip snip crunch

2007-05-10T03:45:11Z

Spent last night editing recordings. Mostly stuff recorded in stereo, just a little bit of multi-tracked stuff. It's basically a slow process of listening through hours of recordings, making notes about what's good and what should never be heard by anyone else except me and Mike (all of these are from sessions in the practice space playing with Mike). We record pretty much every session, which tends to be every few weeks. I listen through each piece and just jot down descriptions of what's going on, with little stars next to good stuff. Anything without a star gets forgotten (though I still keep everything for some reason). Then I go through and do the actual editing, working out good start/end points, creating fades or drop-ins, and so forth.

So now I have 79 minutes worth of new stuff. I'll whittle it down to a reasonable length by being a harsher critic now, until we have about an hour's worth of the best. Then I'll work out a sequence, see if things can crossfade or should be separate, and...there's a new Numinous Eye album. I think I already have a title, and there's a label waiting for it, so hopefully I'll finish this up soon.

Then it's on to editing down the recordings from Japan, to see how much of it's usable for something. And there's also the "studio" album, on which more at a future date.